Chunking

Chunking is when you take undifferentiated information and turn it into chunks. You do this when you decide

  • what is going to be on one page
  • what is going to be on another page
  • when you put things under a header
  • change the header level
  • make a bullet list

A whole document without differentiation is not in the best structure for a wiki format. A knowledge design decision about the rough shape of the network.

Wikis are exceptionally good at rechunking when the need for this is identified.

In a visual map you use space to differentiate between items, this is done in a different way in a wiki.

Workflowy is another example of chunking. The only chunk you have is a bullet and the only differentiation you can give it is to the left which moves it up in the hierarchy and right which moves it down in the hierarchy.

In Obsidian you can open an outline mode which can be collapse sections of the document. The headers work as document structure. This has to be enabled and left set.

There is also a separate outline navigator pane that can be opened on the left and you can click on this to go to different parts of the document.

With thanks to Wendy Elford and Jordan Sukut